Subject: REVIEW: HyperCache Professional
From: [email-masked] (Per Salmi)
Date: 8 Mar 1993 04:20:25 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	HyperCache Professional version 1.01B

	[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  This review was updated on July 12, 1995
	to change the vendor's address, telephone number, and email
	address.  -Dan]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	HyperCache is a software disk cache for the Amiga computer.  Its
purpose is to speed up disk performance.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Silicon Prairie Software
	Address:	N202 - 4771 148th Ave NE
			Bellevue, WA 98007
			USA

	Telephone:	(206) 556-0618

	E-mail:		[email-masked]

LIST PRICE

	US $49.95

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Memory requirements: 512 KB RAM, but 1 MB RAM is recommended for
		better performance

		Hard drive requirements:  NONE.  Works great for floppies,
		but the value is a lot better if you have a hard drive.

		HyperCache works with 68000 and faster CPU's.
		The faster CPU you have, the better performance you get.

	SOFTWARE

		Amiga OS version 1.2 or higher is required according to the
		documentation, but I have only been able to test it with
		Amiga OS version 2.04.

		HyperCache works great under the 3.0 release of the OS.  I
		tried this on one of my friend's machines.

COPY PROTECTION

	The executables has an embedded serial number for tracking pirates down.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 3000
	2 MB CHIP RAM and 8 MB FAST RAM
	Quantum hard drives:  52LPS and 425S

REVIEW

	I first read about HyperCache on comp.sys.amiga.announce and thought
that it could be the thing I needed to speed up my system.  The reason I
need more speed for the filesystem is that I run a BBS for the Amiga User
Group in Sweden. We use DLG Professional BBS software, and it uses a lot of
files for storing messages and other information.  The BBS has three 14400
BPS modems connected and about 150 callers per day. After reading about
HyperCache, I contacted SPS and bought the software.  We were 8 buyers from
Sweden, so we got a slightly better price.

	After a few days, I received my copy and installed it on the BBS.
The next thing to do was to try it out with DiskSpeed.  Wow!  I got about
4.7 MB/sec transfer rate with the first version!  Without HyperCache, I got
1.6 MB/sec.  Quite a speedup!  The directory scanning was also much faster
than before (about 6-15 times depending on the partition's size and the
number of files on it), and that made the BBS users happy.  One of them
asked me if we had gotten a new Zorro III SCSI-2 controller and a SCSI-2
drive...!

	On the program disk, there are two versions of HyperCache:  one for
68000 machines, and one optimized version for accelerated Amigas.  There is
also a utility called Summary or HCSummary that is used to get statistics
about cache hit-ratio, the total number of reads made to that device since
HC was installed, and such things.

	To install HyperCache I copied the files to C: and inserted the
Hypercache command with options in the s:User-Startup file.  On startup, the
program patches the appropriate device driver and inserts the caching
routines. The cache can be removed if you are going to do low level repairs
on the drive or something like that. There is no graphical user interface
for HyperCache, and that would be nice to have when changing the options. To
change the options for a device that already has got a cache installed, you
have to remove the cache for it and restart HC with the new options.  The
caching is done at the device level, so the cache affects the whole drive
and not just the partition that is named when installing.

	I experimented with the options for some time to get most speed out
of it. The default cache size is 512 KB, which is recommended for 50-80 MB
drives, so I increased the number of pre-fetch sectors in my startup to get
a better hit-ratio. I use 2 MB of cache for the 425 MB drive.  You can also
change the number of sets and lines used for the cache to get optimal
preformance for your own system.  I don't know very much about the theory
behind the caching, but I tested different settings until I got the best
performance.  The options were not very well documented in the first release
I got, but in the latest one there is a text file included that explains
prefetch, sets and lines of the cache.

	The amount of memory that is used for caching depends on how you set
the options. I tried a 32 KB cache for my floppy drive and that made it fly
when I listed the disk contents and such things.

	I get a cache hit-ratio of 95-98% on my system. This figure is
depending on how fragmented the files are on the device and how much memory
you use for caching. To get high performance, the drive should be optimized
with some disk optimizer like ReOrg or QuarterBack Tools. This makes the
pre-fetch work better, as it will read more than one block from the drive
each time.  When the system is told to read new blocks from the drive, they
will be found in the cache.

	HyperCache works on any device with 512-byte sectors.  However, I
tried to use it on a CD-ROM hooked up to the BBS, and it would not work.
When I talked to Silicon Prairie about it, I was told that there will be a
version that works with all sector sizes, but that was not yet included in
the distribution package.

	HyperCache is a read-cache in its current state.  It does write to
the disk with write retention, but it doesn't cache writes for a long time.
Writes are done to disk and also kept in the cache.

	I don't know what to say more about the usage... HyperCache works in
the background giving me a very fast disk environment. Any user that wants
more speed from the drives could use HyperCache:  even a small cache gives
quite high performance.  BBS Sysops and people who use the Amiga for
programming are the ones that would get the most out of the product, I
think.  Scanning message bases or include files for a compiler is really
fast with this software.

	I have heard that it gives a lot of speed on A1200 systems with the
IDE-AT controller, someone went from 250KB/sec to over 3.5 MB/sec.  I am
waiting for an A4000 and will try it out on that IDE-AT controller to see
how fast it will become!

DOCUMENTATION

	HyperCache comes with a 10 page printed manual that is quite nice.
It covers system requirements, installation, usage, advanced options, error
messages and troubleshooting. There is a README file provided on the
distribution disk that covers changes made to the software after the manual
was printed. All parts of the manual are quite clear and easy to understand,
but the section for advanced options could be better.  The information in
the manual is not that good on the different options, and you have to read
the files on the disk to get the latest information on the options and
settings (some of them has changed).  I have heard from Silicon Prairie that
the documentation will be revised in a future upgrade.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

	What I really like about HyperCache is THE SPEEEEED!!!!!!  For
applications with a lot of small files like BBS usage, this is a real dream!

	One thing that could be hard for users with little RAM available is
that it takes a bit of memory to get really high performance from it.  512
KB is recommended for 50 - 80 MB drives. You could, however, optimize the
parameters for your own setup to make it use less RAM.

	A Prefs program for 2.x would be nice to have, including a GUI to
make the settings; but when Hypercache is installed, you don't change the
settings that often.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	There is no other cache software available for the Amiga today that
gives this high performance. There is however a PD program called SmartDisk
that I tried to use once, but it did not work with my system, so I dumped
that one right away.

BUGS

	The first version I used had some minor bugs that did not affect the
functionality of the software (Enforcer read hits on startup), but they were
removed in an upgrade that I received soon after telling SPS about the
problems.

	HyperCache does not work with Microbotics HardFrame SCSI host
adapter.  This is the only SCSI board that I have heard of that doesn't work
together with HyperCache. I think this is because the HardFrame uses some
kind of strange hardware/software hack to move the device driver into FAST
RAM, so the patch made by HyperCache doesn't take effect.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	Silicon Prairie has been very nice to talk to and very fast to come
up with answers to all of my questions. I used e-mail to contact them and it
seems like that is the fastest way. They provide upgrades and bug-fixes to
the registered owners.

WARRANTY

	As this is a software package, there are no real warranties, but
Silicon Prairie Software is quite nice when it comes to support.

CONCLUSIONS

	HyperCache is a very nice product. It is aimed at high end users with
heavy applications that cause a lot of disk thrashing. It gives an excellent
performance boost.

	I give the product a rating of 8 out of 10.  A GUI and a revised
version of the documentation would add at least one more point.

	If you feel the need for speed, you won't be disappointed!

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	This review is Copyright 1993 Per Salmi.  All rights reserved. It is
freely distributable.  If you want to use it for some reason, please send me
e-mail and we will work out the details.

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